|
MODEL 1885 UNIFORM CAVALRY GREATCOAT – A VERY
ATTRACTIVE SPECIMEN OF “THE” ICONIC FRONTIER
UNIFORM ITEM FROM THE INDIAN WAR PERIOD - IN VERY GOOD
CONDITION: A true veteran of the Frontier
Indian Wars Army, this original Model 1885 Cavalry
Enlisted Man’s Overcoat, also known during the period as
a “Greatcoat”, is complete with the correct detachable
cape lined in yellow wool.
Elevated in the national
consciousness by such notable artists as Fredrick
Remington in his paintings of the frontier soldier, and
later by John Ford and John Wayne in such films as “She
Wore A Yellow Ribbon” and “Rio Grande”, these US Army
Cavalry Greatcoats are arguably the most iconic piece of
frontier clothing. Due to their prominence on the
painters’ canvases and on the silver screen, these
yellow caped Cavalry Greatcoats are as recognizable as
the buffalo, the war bonnet, and the Winchester rifle to
students of the history of the Frontier West.
Much of the equipment adopted by the army during this
period were subject to changes and modifications as the
initial patterns were subjected to trials and
improvements were suggested, until the powers to be
finally settled on the finished project. Such was the
case with the overcoats of this era. Generally based on
the pattern of the Model 1883 Overcoat, this pattern,
known as the Model 1885 Overcoat, was established under
the direction of the Quartermaster Department Uniform
Specification No. 148, adopted on May 28, 1885.
The cape, a feature of US Army overcoats from the
antebellum period, continued with this pattern, however
as incorporated in the design of some of the earlier
Indian War pattern coats, this cape is attached with a
series of hook and eyes under the collar that permitted
the soldier to remove the cape when the additional
warmth and protection was not required. The cape, as
detailed in the specifications, was lined in wool cloth
in the color of the branch of the service to which the
soldier was assigned – red for Artillery, yellow for
Cavalry, dark blue for Infantry, and so on. In the case
of this cape, the lining of yellow wool “shirting” or
flannel, indicates this coat was issued to a soldier in
the Cavalry.
The sleeves of the Model 1885 Greatcoat no longer had
folded or rolled cuffs; rather they are finished with a
double line of stitching. The exterior edges of the
cuffs are clean and solid with no wear or loss of
material.
There is the regulation single breast pocket on the
inside left edge of the coat body which is lined with
the same white cotton material used to line the
sleeves. This pocket provided easily accessible storage
which did not require digging into several layers of
clothing for a pair of gloves or a handkerchief……..or
possibly a place to hide a flask from the First
Sergeant.
The rear of the coat is split to approximately knee
height to allow room for the soldier’s stride. To
further facilitate the soldier’s movement, both front
bottom edges of the coat were fitted with hooks with
corresponding thread loops sewn to the face of the coat
approximately 12” above the bottom hem and roughly the
same distance in from the front edges of the coat. This
allowed the front corners to be turned up and secured
out of the way to allow the soldier a full stride when
marching – a feature believed to have been adopted from
the French Army. Both the hooks and the thread loops
on the front skirt of the coat are present.
Condition:
This coat presents very
well, still retains its shape and body, and on display
it looks for all intent and purposes as if it were just
hung up by a soldier coming in from a long winter night
on picket duty.
The material is in very
good to excellent condition, being neither rotted, nor
showing any severe soiling, stains or fading. The wool
still retains the “live”, supple feeling, and those of
you familiar with old wool know that this old material
often has a “hardened” texture to the surface. The
lining on the body and the cape is intact and has not
torn loose. The interior of the sleeves are fully lined
with a beige cotton jean material, and the lining is
fully intact the length of the sleeve, with only the
expected minor wear points just inside the cuffs.
Immediately below the collar on the interior of the coat
there is a patch sewn over the original lining. Without
undoing the stitching there is no way of knowing why
this patch is present as there is no indication of any
wear in the adjacent area on the exterior of the coat,
but it appears the patch was used to cover a place of
constant wear, perhaps from where the coat was hung on a
hook in the barracks or over a tree limb in the field.
The soldier also sewed a short piece of chain to the
center back of the coat from which to hang it, likely
after the lining suffered from being hung up. All of
the other seams and stitching is intact and the coat is
not fragile in any way.
In
addition to the minor design changes noted above, the
most obvious difference in appearance of these coats was
the increase of the number of buttons on the
double-breasted front from five pairs to six pairs of
buttons.
All of the original buttons are
present on the coat front and the front of the cape
retains the correct smaller sized buttons. (The Model
1885 Greatcoat did not have cuff buttons.) All of the
hooks and eyes that attach the cape and secure the
collar at the throat are present and intact.
The bottom hem - both the exterior and interior surfaces
- is in remarkable condition, showing none of the wear
or tattering which is normally found on these coats
caused by the hems brushing against the heels of the
soldiers’ boots or snagging on the points of the spur
rowels.
There are no Quartermaster Depot or contractor’s ink
stamps that I could find, and their absence seems to be
consistent in this particular pattern of greatcoats.
There are some small scattered moth holes, and there are
some small repaired corner shaped tears where the
soldier snagged his coat. The repairs were hand
stitched during the period of use, and are now secure,
neither weakening the material nor detracting from the
overall appearance or presentation of the coat. The
worst of these spots of mothing and the repairs are
shown in the photographs below.
The most notable flaw in this coat is a repair under the
left arm pit. Due to the size and the location, I am
inclined to believe the soldier suffered a fairly
dramatic injury or wound in this area while he was
wearing the coat, or he suffered a fall and in the
process his left arm was caught on something, resulting
in a tear in the material in the arm pit area.
As the rest of the coat shows minimal signs of wear –
certainly nothing out of the ordinary, I’m assuming this
localized damage occurred when the coat was fairly new
and the coat was worth the effort to repair it. The
repair, while well done and very durable, is not the
work of a practiced tailor. Rather it is the quality of
work one would expect from a private soldier, doing the
best he could with what materials and skills he had to
work with at the time. Pieces of cloth salvaged from
other articles of clothing, some military and probably
some civilian remnants, were sewn together to form a
patch to fill the void left in the material under the
arm. Despite his obvious limited skills, to his credit
he managed to repair the area in such a manner that when
the coat is worn, that area is completely out of view
unless he were to raise that arm above his head. As a
result, the entire repair was completely out of sight
when the coat was worn, or now, when it is on display as
shown in the photographs below, and in no way does the
repair detract from the presentation of the coat. No
doubt the soldier continued to wear this coat and pass
inspections well after the repair was done.
This is probably a good place to interject the reason
why a soldier would make such a repair when, assuming
the damage occurred while he was on duty, he could have
obtained another coat from the post quartermaster. He
certainly could have exchanged the coat, however the
replacement coat would have been charged against the
annual clothing allotment he received from the army,
substantially lowering his balance. Each year of a
soldier’s enlistment, he received a clothing allotment –
the amount in a given year to be determined by the
largess of the congressional appropriations to the army
– and those funds held on account for each soldier were
intended to keep him in a serviceable and presentable
uniform for the year. Set amounts were charged against
his allotment for each article of clothing he required
during that year - so much for a pair of trousers, so
much for a pair of socks, etc. What funds he didn’t use
during the course of the year were forwarded to the next
year and added to that year’s allotment, and so on for
the duration of his enlistment. At the end of his
enlistment, or when he finally retired or otherwise
separated from the service, whatever funds remained in
his allotment account were paid out to him. Therefore,
it was in the interest of the soldier to take care of
his clothing, and make it last as long as he could. A
careful soldier who kept his uniform components clean,
kept current with necessary repairs, and stored them
properly, could save a tidy nest egg of unused allotment
money over the course of his enlistment(s) which would
see him in good stead when he returned to civilian
life. So, that the soldier executed this repair under
the arm and the other small repairs as noted above is
not surprising, and his efforts are entirely in keeping
with the practices of the enlisted soldier of the
Frontier Army.
I
have indicated all the above points of wear to provide
an honest description, however overall the wear that is
present is minimal, and this overcoat is still a very
attractive specimen.
Given the hard use to
which these Indian Wars era Great Coats were subjected,
and their low survival rate – especially the Cavalry
coats – one expects to find evidence of wear and use in
the field. While this coat certainly shows use, it
still presents as a very high grade specimen which
retains all of the desirable features.
Never commonly encountered, these cavalry specimens with
the yellow lined cape are particularly rare. Decent
pieces of Indian War period uniforming are becoming
increasingly difficult to find on the market,
particularly examples of this quality that have not been
used to destruction or subjected to the ravages of time
in poor storage. This Model 1885 Cavalry Overcoat would
make a dramatic back drop or center piece for a Frontier
army Cavalry weapon and accoutrement display.
(0172) $3500
NOTE:
To say that photographing blue wool is a challenge is an
understatement. In normal lighting, it appears black
and none of the finer features or condition details can
be seen clearly. In order to highlight the features, I
have to change the contrast settings and as a result,
the even blue wool appears to have faded or discolored.
This coat is an even medium blue color as is seen in the
overall full views, the odd coloring coming out when the
smaller details of the coat are photographed so as to be
visible.
|
